Wednesday, May 13, 2009

OMG, WTF, and SMH

These acronyms have become not only a part of the teenage internet craze/cult, these new age media terms are slowly trickling down to the old-heads and the not so technologically savvy. If you didn’t know, OMG stand for Oh My God(Gosh, depending on your convictions), WTF stands for What The #$%&(or Frick, or freak once again depending on your convictions), and SMH stands for Shake or Shaking My Head.

Being a part of this internet age of the new millennium, there are many times where I use these on computer based communication, text messaging and so on and so forth. But there are times where when in my daily routine of things, I use these in real life or these phrases run through my mind.

As I was in class today at the World Journalism Institute (WJI), I read about 3 or 4 articles on the Washingtonpost.com. One about a Peaceaholic (a non profit group that works in the inner city and urban areas to promote non violence) intern that allegedly molested a 15 year-old girl from Spingarn In DC. I also read an article about DC Mayor Fenty allowing a church to destroy a building because it was an eyesore to the community. But then I came to something that made me say OMG, WTF, and SMH all at the same time. The first time I did that, it was because of this. Which, rather ironically, had to do with the same affiliates as this time.

Notre Dame University invited President Barack Obama to give the commencement speech at their graduation this coming Sunday. As most know Notre Dame is a the lighthouse Catholic university in America. J. Bottums, a speaker at the WJI on yesterday said that “Opposition to abortion is the signpost to Catholicism to American public life.” There is a plane flying around Notre Dame’s campus with a banner of an aborted fetus that reads “10 Week Abortion”.

To that I said, OMG. How distasteful to fly that around a college campus like that. If there is a racist Caucasian group at a state college, is it ok to fly around a picture of a dead black person or something of the sort. If an atheist did something like that about a Christian, or something he believes in that goes against what we Christians believe, there would be unprecedented outrage. Especially among the conservatives.

After thinking about it heavily, I asked myself why I was surprised. Through the link provided above, I had to remember that such extreme and disgusting tactics are a staple of the conservative right aka the Republican party. Negative attack ads, propagandas filtered through the internet, all those things brought me back to the months leading up to the election.Further reflecting on it, I said WTF. If I was going Notre Dame, I would be pissed beyond measureable degree because these politicians (such as Randall Terry and the DETESTABLE Alan Keyes) are taking the moment that I worked so hard for, put 4 (or 5….or 6) years of my life toward, and one of the happiest days of my life, and turning it into a media circus and frenzy. I cannot begin to feel how much the events that will take place on Sunday will affect those graduates. That’s like having Alan Keys come to your birthday party, but push you out the way and stepping in your birthday cake.

Finally, I just had to shake my head. When will the Republican party realize that these tactics don’t reach unbelievers? When will they learn that these types of outrageous antics only push away people who don’t believe as they believe? Did they not see after their “mavericky” candidates were smacked THOUROUGHLY in the general election that those scare tactics don’t work?